More than 400 of the City's top-rated youth chess players
competed in the 2014 NYC Mayor's Cup Chess Championships at PS 11 - The William
T. Harris School for a chance to be crowned the "Best in the City." Three teams
were tied in the standings of the Junior High/High School Open section heading
into the final round, but Edward R. Murrow High School (Brooklyn) finished
strong and took home the Cup, while PS 160K (Brooklyn) finished as the top team
in the Elementary Open section. Alisher Podavonov (Brooklyn Tech) finished
first in Junior High/High School Open section individual standings, and Aidan
Ahram (NEST+m) was the top individual in the Elementary Open section.

The
tournament, which was open to all NYC students in grades K-12 who are rated 600
or higher by the US Chess Federation, was produced by NYC & Company in
partnership withChess-in-the-Schools.

The teams from Edward R. Murrow HS, NEST+m and Stuyvesant
were all tied atop the standings of the Junior High/High School Open section (grades
6-12, rated over 1,500) heading into the final round of play. In the end, Edward
R. Murrow HS took home the Cup for the second time in the past three years as their
top four players all finished in the top 20. NEST+m finished in second place followed
by Stuyvesant, who finished third.

In the individual competition, defending champion
Isaac Barayev (NEST+m) and Alisher Podavonov (Brooklyn Tech) were the only two
competitors left in their section that had perfect scores as they prepared to
face each other in the final round of play. Podavonov took home the gold medal
as he defeated Barayev in the deciding match, and Barayev ended up in fifth
place because of tiebreakers. Alex Spinnell (Stuyvesant) finished second
followed by Shawn Swindell (Murrow) in third and Ashanti Murray (FDA) in fourth.

PS 160K took home the Cup as the top team in the Elementary
Open section (grades K-5, rated above 1,100), while the team from PS 124M took
silver, and last year's Elementary team champions from PS 503K finished in
third. In the individual scoring, Aidan Ahram (NEST+m) and Jun Yan Li (160K)
both finished with perfect scores, but Ahram was awarded the gold medal, while Li
took home the silver due to tiebreakers. Tyler Roonprapunt (Dalton School)
finished in third place followed by Justin Dalhouse (282K) in fourth and last
year's Elementary individual champion Justin Chen (124M) in fifth.

In the Junior High/High School Novice section (rated
under 1,500), East Side Community High School finished first followed by Edward
R. Murrow HS and 318K. In the individual standings, Samuel Zhang (Stuyvesant)
took home gold in that section followed by Allen Li (318K) and Ash Egyud (East
Side Community HS).

In the Elementary Novice section (rated under 1,100), the
team from Avenues: The World School took home first place followed by the team
from PS307Q, who finished second, with the team from 503K, finishing in third
place. The individual scoring was very tight, but in the end, Kunchok Khando
(139K) took home the gold medal followed by Michael Ramon (218X) and Ryan
Christi Chen (NEST+m) because of tiebreakers.